Greenko, an Indian power producer creating a 24/7 renewable energy proposition backed with energy storage, has announced a planned US$1.2 billion pumped hydro project.
The company is already developing pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plants around India, using them as a cornerstone of what it claimed is the country’s first “dispatchable renewable energy” business model, together with multiple gigawatts of solar PV and wind.
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Greenko said yesterday that its newest project in development is a PHES plant in the Neemuch District of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh with storage capacity of 11GWh.
The company said it expects the project to require about IR100 billion (US$1.224 billion). Greenko already has a combined portfolio of PV and wind in Madhya Pradesh totalling around 500MW, it said.
India is gradually opening up as a market for lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) and expected to offer considerable opportunities for that technology. PHES is considered a relatively low-cost answer for long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications – if suitable sites can be found.
For example, Greenko won a 2018 tender with a pumped hydro and renewable energy project proposal that was considered the lowest cost renewables-plus-storage solicitation in the world. More recently, in December 2022, the company won a technology agnostic tender hosted by Indian state-owned power company NTPC’s renewable energy arm, with a PHES project bid offering a cost of storage as low as US$29/MWh if cycled more than once per day, or US$58/MWh for applications requiring one daily cycle.
Of the new project in Madhya Pradesh, Greenko said it will be charged with energy during off-peak times using abundant renewable generation and discharged to help mitigate peak demand and smooth the integration of wind and solar.
It will also help the state to meet its energy policy goals, its Renewable Power Obligation (RPO) and Energy Storage Obligation (ESO).
Greenko meanwhile, which also offers 24/7 renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) to large corporates such as metals company ArcellorMittal, wants to reach 50GWh of energy storage capacity onboarded to its “Energy Storage Cloud Platform” by 2025, and then to 100GWh by 2027, as well as building 10GW of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
The Madhya Pradesh is anticipated for completion by December 2024 and will be connected to India’s interstate high-voltage transmission system, the ISTS.
“The project of this scale has been possible due to policy support at national level and astute
leadership and guidance of Honorable Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri. Shivraj Singh Chouhan ji,” Greenko CEO and MD Anil Chalamalasetty said.
“Madhya Pradesh’s favourable topography and resources along with world class infrastructure
will help us build this project in a cost-effective and timely manner.”
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